The benefits of Planner Pad:

• Monthly view
• 2 pages weekly view
• Different sizes calendars to choose from
• Space for roles, tasks, and appointments
• Room on the weekly pages to capture bits of information
• Designed to make all aspects of your life funnel into each week, in one place

Click here to See the Planner Pad video

Remember kindergarten? Specifically, do you remember the kindergarten routine? I had a chance to visit a kindergarten last year. My client at that time was a kindergarten teacher.  Not much has changed in the kindergarten classroom since my kids were in kindergarten. There’s still the reading/story time area, the activity tables, the colorful bulletin boards and the art area. What also hasn’t changed in kindergarten is the importance of routine. Every kindergartner knows what happens in their classroom when they first arrive, then what happens next and what comes after that – all the way to the end of  their day.

Just like kindergarten, we all have routines. Having a routine helps you get through your day smoothly. It’s predictable and heck, most times it’s downright comfortable.

Do you need to get a handle on your routines? Sometimes our routines need to be re-evaluated, adjusted and/or added to.

Re-evaluate

Is your routine working?  Is there room for improvement? Is the routine an old habit that no longer serves you? Is it time for a change? Our lives are not stagnant so sometimes the routine needs an adjustment. Take a moment and assess what part of your routine is working and what may be missing.

Adjust

The first adjustment that might need to be made is your outlook.  Do you have a good attitude towards this routine or do you do it begrudgingly? If your routine no longer serves you, be realistic- say good-bye and stop doing it. Often a routine simply needs to be tweaked or changed a little depending on the present day situation. Sometimes just shifting the time of do in which you do a routine will make it more effective or work better in your day. Make small adjustments at a time and give yourself time to get used to them.

Add

If you are happy with the routines you have, is there another routine you would like to establish? The best way to create a new routine is to pair it with an existing routine. Plot out the new routine and begin to establish it, but give it time. It takes time to get “in the groove” of a new routine and have it established.

“You have to have consistent effort to win the game, period.” -Chris Smith

Once you have a handle on your routines, don’t forget to periodically revisit these three steps –  reevaluate, adjust, and add – to keep your routines working optimally for you.

“One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don’t clean it up too quickly.”  ~Andy Rooney

Time Saving Tips for Christmas Day

Make a breakfast casserole the night before and just pop it in the oven on Christmas morning

Set the table the night before

Use disposable baking pans and trays for meal prep

Put out a veggie and/or fruit tray for snacking throughout the day

Charge the camera batteries and set up the tripod the night before

Have a large garbage bag staged beside the tree the night before to hold discarded wrappings

Use a gift bag to hold all the bows and ribbons you plan to recycle as things are unwrapped

Have an empty clothes basket for each child to put their gifts into after they get unwrapped

Andy Rooney will be missed this Christmas, but he is right – Don’t clean up too quickly, savor your holiday with your loved ones and soak up the memories.

I was having a crazy Monday yesterday; lots of things to accomplish for work, preparation for company arriving this weekend, setting up meetings with new clients, making more doctor appointments, etc.  I felt like I had a mountain of things to do and only a small amount of time to do it in.  I’m sure you have had one of those days.  In the moment, my anxiety level was increasing, I felt stressed, and everything seemed to be whirling out of control.  Well today is Tuesday, so I obviously survived.

Here are the 3 things I did that helped me to not only survive but have better control of my day and be more productive. I am sharing in hopes that they will be useful to you when you feel the way I did yesterday. READ MORE

Last year a business associate heard me speak. Afterwards, she came up and told me she had a poem for me. Not the usual reaction that I get when speaking…

But the next day, when I got her email I realized why she sent the poem.  I have always believed that anyone can do the physical act of organizing but in order to be successful, one has to master the habit of organizing. Read the poem below and see if you don’t agree….

The Habit

I am your constant companion,
I am your greatest helper or heaviest burden.
I will push you onward or drag you down to failure.
I am completely at your command.
Half the things you do might just as well turn over to me
and I will be able to do them quickly and correctly.

I am easily managed -
you must merely be firm with me.
Show me exactly how you want something done
and after a few lessons, I will do it automatically.
I am the servant of all great people;
and alas, of all failures as well.
Those who are great,
I have made great.
Those who are failures,
I have made failures.

I am not a machine,
though I work with all the precision of a machine
plus the intelligence of a human.
You may run me for a profit or run me for ruin -
it makes no difference to me.

Take me,
train me,
be firm with me,
And I will place the world at your feet.
Be easy with me,
and I will destroy you.

WHO AM I?

I AM HABIT.

(Author Unknown)

Do you need some help with creating the habit of organization?  Drop me an email if you want some help!

Today’s blog post is from a new friend of mine, Jennifer Gallagher.  She is very talented and is the owner of Virtual Assistance by Jen. If you are self employed or a busy executive, you can confidently delegate tasks to her company. Jen’s mission is to make a difference in the world, one client at a time.  Today, she gives us a few pointers on the “To-Do” lists we all have.

“To-Do” lists. Everyone has them. Some even have multiple lists! YIKES!!! But, do you ever notice those lists never seem to shrink? In fact, they seem to get larger by the day; at least in my case.  Well, I’ve come up with 15 items that may be on your list that can each be done in five minutes or less! READ MORE

As technology continues to advance, so do our opportunities. People now realize that computer technology allows them to work from home, accessing necessary data from the internet, on the “cloud”. The term “telecommuting” is used to describe such an occurrence. Many people were excited to give up driving commute time, add flexibility to their life and work from home.
But there are some drawbacks. The much sought after flexibility can often fall victim to household distractions and lead to wasted productivity. If you or someone you know works from home, whether self  employed or telecommuting, this blog post is for you. READ MORE

The “U” in FOCUS stands for:

Use a planning tool

Dwight Eisenhower said, ” Plans are nothing, planning is everything.”

In other words, it’s not about what you are going to do, it’s about what you have planned to do.  So set up some type of planning tool.  There are many varieties to choose from: white boards, wall calendars, paper planners, pdas and smart phones just to name a few.   Use what works for you.

Set aside time each week to plan your schedule, not just your time sensitive appointments but time allotted for your projects, your family and, most of all, time for yourself.  Make sure to leave margins in your schedule too. These are gaps of time that allow for things like travel time, meetings that run late, and last minute errands. Remember we have already discovered that you can opt out of a few things…. To be productive also think in terms of time blocking.  This means using chunks of time for similar tasks.  For example:

1. Run all your errands on the same day instead of going one or two different places each day.
2. Set up a specific amount of time to spend checking email and being on the internet.
3. Make all your phone calls in one chunk of time, instead of spreading them throughout the day.

If you need help finding a planner or learning how to do weekly planning, I’m here to help!

The “O” in FOCUS stands for:

Opt out of a few things

As you go through your week be on the look out for things that crowd your life but do not bring value.

My mentor, Barbara Hemphill, always said  that a productive environment is “an intentional setting in which  everything around you supports your goals and who you want to be”.  Sit with that for a minute. ….   Now look around your desk, your home, your emails and what do you find there that does not support your goals and who you want to be?  Here are a few examples of things I have found that don’t bring value to my life:

1. Subscribing to a blog feed that I never read
2. Getting an weekly email that had quotes that I never found useful
3. Magazines that I never read
4. The weekend newspaper
5. A networking group that met in the evening

This short list is an example of how, over a period of time, we fail to see the things that are not useful.  While we do not “see” them, they do add to the mental clutter of our minds.  Seeing the weekend paper, for example, stack up on the entry table makes me feel guilty for not taking the time to read it.  I also feel the neglected newspaper is a waste of natural resources if I am not using it; after all, trees were cutdown to make that newspaper.

In order to focus, we must opt out of a few things.  These things may be in the “background” of our day to day life and we may not pay much attention to them.  However, they are still in our peripheral. If we want better focus and more time in our day, we need to get rid of the unproductive things to make room for life.

So, I’m curous. What can you opt out of this week?  Post a comment here.

I’m tired of hearing that old cliche “There’s not enough hours in a day!”

News Flash:  There ARE enough hours in the day if you focus! I will be posting 5 tips, distinct actions, that you can implement to improve your focus. And just to be crafty, I am making “FOCUS” an acronym to help you remember.

The “F” in focus stands for

Forget multitasking

Multitasking is not an effective way to focus your energies.  It actually will slow you down.  Many people brag about multitasking (namely moms who have a million things to do).  But multitasking just gives you a false sense of productivity.  ” Those who multitask are actually less efficient than those who focus on one project at a time”, according to a study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.

Here’s my analogy of multitasking.  Stand at a light switch on your wall.  Now turn it on….

Turn it off

Turn it on

Turn it off

Turn it on…

Not only is that annoying but it will eventually make your finger tired too.  In this analogy, your brain is the light switch and your tasks (or areas of focus) are the light and the darkness. Your brain does not really do to things at the same time, it is literally switching back and forth between the tasks. You are losing precious time in the switching back and forth.